Paloma Elsesser will introduce herself to you as a plus-size model. "That's my profession—how I support myself—but I don't want that to always be part of my description. My story is different," she tells us in her (seriously cute) New York City apartment. It's true: She's the exact opposite of a stereotypical model. The 24-year-old moved to the city from Los Angeles in 2010 to attend the New School for psychology and literature, but she recently took a break after Pat McGrath tapped her to be one of her Instagram-inspired muses. To say she's one to watch (and follow, of course) would be an understatement. Elsesser's success is proof that social media is democratizing the industry, and she's just getting started. We sat down with her to talk body image, beauty, and race, and she was so well-spoken, we wanted to share her story in her own words.

"I remember going to the Gap when I was in the fifth grade, and I desperately wanted a pair of blue jeans. I was with my dad, and I remember picking up the jeans, looking at them, and thinking that they had to fit me. But there was nothing that fit me. This was before the age of stretch so I was trying on adult Gap. I even tried on men's pants, but nothing fit me right. I was just proper chubby at that time—it wasn't like my body had filled out in the right way. I remember crying in the dressing room and feeling worthless and disgusting. Those are such a horrible feelings to feel at such a young age—feeling so excluded from the world. It's not fair for little kids to feel bad about themselves for how they look. It's not our fault, and it's fucked up, and backward.

"I went to private school my whole life. Growing up in Los Angeles, you're surrounded by not just Connecticut privilege but, like, your-dad's-a-movie-star privilege. On top of that, I couldn't share clothes with my friends because I was wearing a bra in fourth grade. All these little things wear on you when you're a kid because you're so vulnerable, and all you want to do is connect. I think there were times with boys where I was friend-zoned or it was like, Oh, she's a pretty face and so cool. But boys in high school, they don't know how to be like, My girl's big, and it's fine. That wasn't a thing.

"Those experiences definitely helped shape how I feel and how I understand myself now. Still, to this day, we're trying to undo that thing where it's your fault that you're fat. Yeah, there's the food or whatever, but why is it so bad all the time? It's like, Well, they're lazy or unhealthy, and yeah, I'm probably a little lazy. I could be more fit, but I'm not dying. I still eat incredibly nutritious food, but this is my body type. I'm not someone who can eat whatever they want and exercise and it's cool. That's not me. If I really wanted to be skinny, I'd have to go hard. It's not worth it enough to me anymore. I've just adjusted and accepted [myself], and I make a conscious effort to not let it hold me back when I'm getting dressed.

"It took a lot for me to be able to say that I'm a plus-size model or a model at all without feeling terror or this kind of panic because it was something so unplanned. I wasn't scouted in a mall as a kid. I went through my whole life thinking I'm a pretty, chubby girl. I've never been skinny, so it's something that was really born out of the visibility that social media granted me. I'm not supertall, and I don't have this classic plus-size body, but I'm special in my own way, and I think that story is really inspiring to a lot of girls.

"Pat [McGrath] found me through social media. She wanted to connect with downtown girls 'doing things,' and we had a mutual friend. So thank you, Instagram! Pat is such an artist. She has the ability to think beyond the confines of what fashion has to offer. A lot of brands are late to the idea of the value of Instagram, but she saw it. She loves beautiful people and cool-looking people and people with cool stories. Anyone who has come across her knows her power and her strength and her artistry. She makes every girl feel special—she doesn't try to change anything about me.

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"My social-media strategy is to stay as authentic as possible and do what I'd naturally do, regardless of what external forces might encourage me to do. When I watch and observe how Instagram works, I'm like, Oh wow—how did she grow [her following] so quickly? Oh, I see. She posts more pictures of herself more often. I strategically try to implement that because there's so little interaction that we have, even in New York City. Instagram is a way to stay a part of people's lives. People want to see you and be reminded that you're there. They follow you because they want to know about you, or they know you and they want to know more. Strategically, I try to find that balance. And it's not like I need to be like, 'I love myself, hashtag love me,' every day. It's rad, girls who do that, but for me, it feels so untrue. By posting a picture of myself in a crop top, where I don't have a flat stomach and you can see rolls, I don't have to hashtag and put in the caption that I love myself. If I'm posting it, I'm like, Yeah I like this picture. I look good in this picture, and so could you. It's more about actions over words.

On Elsesser's dresser: Her fragrance collection, candles, and fresh flowers.

"I do identify as plus-size. I can't walk into any store and have everything fit me, so I have to be a little more creative. I'm chubby and cute, whatever. Plus-size is a scapegoat because I use it as a form of protection. When people ask what I do, I feel uncomfortable saying I'm a model because I don't like to see confused faces. When I say I'm a plus-size model, let me just clarify so we can get over this confusion because it's annoying. I don't always want to be the token big girl. I don't want that to always be part of my description. 'Oh, she has a really beautiful face, and she's a little bigger.' It's like, I know.

"Especially growing up in Westernized culture, we're told that if you're not this one archetypal kind of beauty then you're not worth it. And that's the reason why you don't get the boy, and that's the reason for all these things. It's so ingrained in us, so I've been trying to combat that forever. I call it the chubby-girl complex. Every time something goes wrong, it's because you're fat. But it's not true. That's what I'm learning as I'm getting older. With acceptance and understanding, with confidence and having self-worth, it's irrelevant. I'm still on that journey. The reality is that it's been hard. Of course, when I was a teenager, I hated myself and all I wanted was to be skinny, but I didn't want it badly enough to get skinny [she laughs]. It's a roller coaster—an ebb and flow. I still have that, but as I've gotten older, that ebb is shorter and the flow is much more full. Emotionally it's so taxing. It takes so much energy not to love yourself. So much more than it takes to give yourself some space to do what you want to do. I try to bring that kind of attitude into everything I do. Relationships, friendships, work, getting dressed. It's way more exhausting to be hard on yourself.

Frances Tulk Hart

In Tompkins Square Park in New York City

"Ethnicity-wise, my prescribed identity to people is always going to be Latina, but my mom is black, and my dad is Chilean and Swiss. I'm as Latina as I am white, and I'm half African-American. I grew up in an African-American household, my grandparents don't speak Spanish, and I didn't grow up immersed in Hispanic culture. My grandmother is a refined Chilean woman, but she lived in London for 40 years. My dad left Chile at the age of nine. They left on a boat and never looked back. I look really Latina, but my ascribed identity is mixed. I'm not one thing. I do feel more connected to black culture and the black experience because with my cousins, my mom, and my grandparents, that's how I immediately feel. But I also felt ostracized from black culture because I don't look 'black enough.' And I definitely couldn't be white.

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"High school was when I started reading about race theory, and it really opened my eyes. It validated the fact that my sensitivities weren't actually sensitivities but realities. There have been so many things that have happened for this conversation to bubble up to the top because we have no choice but to have this conversation. In America, people for a while thought of racism as so specific, but now it's so much more passive. It's so scary because it's silent. It exists in the people who say, 'I don't see color,' or 'It's not a big deal,' or 'There's no such thing as cultural appropriation.' It's bullshit because you have to understand the difference in order to be a part of the difference. And it still happens in the fashion industry. You watch a runway show, and you can count on one hand how many girls of color there are. And you can't count any with body diversity. Diversity is lacking, and I think that there's going to be a huge rupture because it's like, Come on now. It's not boring, but because of the age of visibility that we have, because of social media, people are craving to see more. People need to see more. It's just how it's going to go. And it's whoever is going to be brave enough to be like, All right, we're going to do it first.

Some of her favorite reads—and other pretty things

"I do have an ideal end goal that I mark in my head: I want to finish school, get my masters, and be a psychologist for adolescents. I put that on hold because the last two years have been crazy. Everything that's happened over the year and recently, it hasn't happened without effort, but it has without focus. So I allowed myself to take a year off to focus to just do it. I signed with Muse [Models], I'm going to castings, I'm showing up, I'm wearing the boots, and I'm trying to play my cards right. Because ultimately I want to have some kind of voice in this movement in a way that's big or tangible. I'd love to get into talk-show stuff—ideally I'd like to be Oprah [she laughs] and write more. An d then go back to school because that doesn't have a time limit. This kind of stuff unfortunately does. You have to act on what's happening. You can't be passive about things coming toward you."